Abstract
The thymus is important in the differentiation of bone marrow-derived precursor cells into functional T cells; humoral factors1–4, as well as physical interactions with nurse cells 5, dendritic cells and epithelial cells6–8, are thought to be instrumental in this process. Thymic lymphocytes mature during their migration from the cortical to the medullary region of the thymus9–11, when they undergo phenotypic changes that include the acquisition of T-cell antigen receptors12–13, hormone receptors1–14, 15and differentiation antigens16. Cortical T cells are thus mostly CD4+CD8+, whereas medullary T cells are either CD4+CD8− or CD4−CD8+ (refs 6, 16 and 17). During this period T cells are subjected to two types of repertoire selection: all T cells recognizing self-MHC with low affinity18 may be preferentially amplified (positive selection), and in a second step T cells with high-affinity receptors for self-MHC determinants plus self antigens are eliminated (negative selection). We have described two monoclonal antibodies19 specific for the Vβ6 gene segment of the α/βheterodimeric T-cell antigen receptor and have shown that most CD4+/Vβ6+ T cells recognize the Mlsa antigenic determinant but not Mlsb (ref. 20; similar results have been reported for Vβ8.1 and Mlsa (ref. 21). In both situations, tolerance to Mlsa correlated in an MHC-dependent fashion with absence of Vβ6 or Vβ8.1 T-cell antigen receptor expressing T cells in the periphery. We show here by immunostaining of thymus cryosections and cytofluorometric analysis that Vβ6-expressing cortical T cells are present at high density in both Mlsa and Mlsb mice, but do not enter the medullary region of Mlsa animals.
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Hengartner, H., Odermat, B., Schneider, R. et al. Deletion of self-reactive T cells before entry into the thymus medulla. Nature 336, 388–390 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1038/336388a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/336388a0
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